Intel and Toshiba Launch The Inside Experience

Inside, a branded entertainment project starring Emmy Rossum and co-funded by Intel and Toshiba, debuts today at 2pm EST. As we noted earlier this month, the tech brands have joined forces for The Inside Experience, a crowdsourced hybrid of film and social media that riffs on the iconic “Intel Inside” tagline — collaborating not only with each, but with the audience.

The plot: A young woman, Christina, played by Rossum is trapped in a room with only a Toshiba Satellite P775 laptop – powered by a second-generation Intel chip, and an undetectable Internet connection. The character must rely on her social network to deduce her location and plan her escape. That’s where the social web kicks in, starting today.[more]

“It’s primarily a piece of entertainment, and it moves down the path to integrate social media aspects into it. As a brand, we’re ‘Sponsors of Tomorrow,’ and we’d like to think we’re sponsors of tomorrow’s entertainment,” commented Ryan Baker, OEM partner marketing director for Intel, about the first-of-its-kind social film.

Fans can participate starting today via the social web — on the microsite, on Twitter, by following @theinsideexp and the hashtag #theinsideexperience, and on the project’s Facebook page — post clues and advice that will be incorporated into the series episodes.

Here’s the first episode of The Inside Experience (INSIDE — Day 1) with the description: “Meet Christina Perasso. She is trapped in a room with only a laptop and an internet connection. With the help of her friends, family and you, she just might be able to find her way out… Help Christina in real time by going to her Facebook page now.”

Naturally, it features the Toshiba laptop (with Intel inside) as a major prop:

Her character’s Facebook page, however, seems less frantic than the Christina we meet above:

Until last week, visitors to TheInsideExperience.com have been able to read scripts, make suggestions, submit and upload an audition. Any user-created video submissions that get used in the project will garner screen credit and bragging rights for the auteur.

Intel and Toshiba are targeting that elusive younger generation increasingly immune to old-school advertising campaigns, and more prone to ‘video snacking.’

“This is a step above advertising,” says Tom Hume, director of marketing communications for Toshiba. “It takes traditional one-way communication and turns it on its head.”